HUD secretary: Disaster aid must move faster
Carson made the remarks at a news conference after he and
Floodwater from
The property has since been repaired.
The state and federal government have allocated hundreds of millions of dollars to help
Carson said he recognizes that "the system that exists can use some improvement, because it takes so long to get things done."
"What's taking so long?" Wright said.
Carson said he met with other federal agency leaders on Monday to discuss how to more rapidly distribute disaster relief. "What we decided, after our meeting on Monday, is that we need to kind of scrap all these things that have been put in place before, and start all over again.
"Because there are a lot of good elements in all the different agencies. But unless they're coordinated in the right way, it just gets in people's way."
The money is approved, Carson said. Local officials are to decide how it's released. "That is the big push right now and I think it's complete or almost complete."
A spokesman for Carson said in an interview later there has been a delay because
Meanwhile, Pittenger said,
The housing that Carson toured was built in part with HUD money as part of
"What's been done here, I think is spectacular," Carson said. He noted that he had visited an apartment building for elderly people.
"It is my strong belief that as a humane society, we need to do everything we can to make sure that our elderly experience comfort in their last years of life, and there's an old Chinese saying that says you can determine the morality of a society by how they take care of their elderly," Carson said. "As far as I'm concerned, that's a non-issue.
"What we do have to spend a little more time talking about are those individuals who find themselves in public assistance who are not elderly, who are not disabled. But who seem to be 'stuck.' "
He said people get stuck because in
"In a way, we've sort of perpetuated that problem. There is a multi-agency council now that is looking at that issue to try to ameliorate it," Carson said.
"We want to encourage people," he said. "The definition of success is not how many people get into federal aid situations, but how many we get out of it. And giving people hope. Real hope."
Staff writer
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